Philippe Coutinho left Liverpool for Barcelona last January (Pic: Getty)

“If you’re at Barcelona, you better have the confidence because if you’ve got to keep up with the kind of performances Lionel Messi is putting up and you’re going to be adding value to that, then you have to be doing that consistently.

“He has not been able to do it at all.”

But speaking at the weekend, Valverde once again leapt to Coutinho's defence.

He said: “What I like about him is that he always tries things and takes on his man. It might work or it might not.